'EVERY HIPSTER'S FAVORITE NEW RAPPER'

Not looking to preempt friend of offnotes Tom Breihan here, but let's talk about this new Devin the Dude record, OK? Went in expecting fireworks, left wanting to knock ppl's lights out. Byron Crawford beats me to the punch: Waitin' to Inhale is half "nasty sex raps," as he notes, and half "hey, college kids, this is what stoned people listen to" smoke appeal-- like Ben Harper's "Burn One Down" (video) for a generation of rap-accepting undergraduates who couldn't care less about Harper-style social consciousness (more later). Dude, bring on the nasty sex!

What's way more interesting to me than Devin's music is the way it causes me to react. Jon Caramanica made a much-quoted point in a Cam'ron review about how "the avant-garde need not be moral," but that sentence unduly stipulates unassailable "avant-garde" status and could be used to justify just about anything. Besides, the notion that great art need not show great morals dates back at least as early as Sophocles. A Jeezy album about coke or a Shakespearean tragedy about mariticide (forgive me, God, fuck) possess aesthetic appeal that allows us to suspend moral judgment. We simply enjoy them. I can see why some people like Waitin' to Inhale, and apparently Devin's normally a charismatic every-Dude, but this record ain't so hot. Or fly. (Tho Matos's Mims comments are; Harvilla's chart is, too.)

Aside from three meh redneck skits, Waitin' to Inhale has some decent beats, a really bizarre Eminem-style wife-killer track ("Just Because"; stream), pedophile jokes ("Cutcha Up"), and a lot of huffing and puffing about herb. I think this is all supposed to be funny (if it *were* funny that would seem like an obvious understatement-- Dude does kinda try). I guess the highlight is "What a Job" (stream; via Nah Right and Idolator), which has a totally lame acoustic guitar riff (hey, like "Burn One Down"), a lumbering "He Got Game" beat, and enough unwarranted self-satisfaction for that horribly disappointing (sorry, Mr. Frere-Jones-- sir!) new Fall Out Boy album. Oh, it's got Snoop Dogg and Andre 3000, too. Actually, it's Snoop who made my face turn red the first time through, complaining about his "baby mama naggin'" in the midst of a song about making music and getting high, amidst an album of songs about getting high and making girls play with each other's "titties" and Devin hoping he can score some 'tang so he won't have to beat his "bone," and I just can't help but side with the nagging mother here. Take care of your kids, you fucking deadbeats! What do they want, a cookie?

See, there, I did it again: I ended with a moral judgment rather than a musical one. Still, a party jam about sex or a brilliantly worded fantasy about drugs are both very different from a lazy assemblage of incredibly dehumanizing language regarding women-- the last offers little reason to listen, unless you don't mind hearing that stuff. Speaking of women, does Dude know any? Cf. the execrable "I Hope I Don't Get Sick a Dis," which contains reference to (Crawford's words) "a ploppy from an Asian broad who just got done making Moo Goo Gai Pan." All right, so maybe tonight we'll hit up El Rey del Taco instead. I mean, as a fourth-grader listening to "Mama Said Knock You Out" (video), I thought LL Cool J was saying awfully violent stuff, but I still loved it, so it's not like I'm *just* being square here. (Crawford likens the Kim-killa song to LL's "I Need You," and he's terrifyingly dead on.) HA!

Dude's words are ugly regardless, but all he gives us to help swallow this bitter pill is lackadaisical aw-shucks Dudeness and awkward humor. This only makes shit worse. It'd be one thing if I could imagine him playing a character or even being, as with R. Kelly, a talented freak, but Devin sure sounds like he really wants us to sympathize with him-- to say, "hey I've been there." Like some kind of fraternity/third-wave-mp3-blogger brah stereotype. It doesn't matter if this is his intention or not, of course; Dude's delivery carries the suggestion either way.

The rhymes? Hey, "sleazy" goes with "easy"! "Bong" works with "song"! ...Devin had better keep whacking.



DIGRESSION: This LP did make me think about the appeal that compromised morality holds for me in music these days. My generation has become accustomed to it, I think. On Saturday, I found out that this random dude at a party, Tom B. and I all own the same H&M scarf, made in China for some wage we'd probably find despicable. Why don't we ONLY shop at thrift stores (see offnotes, 3/17/07, "Now I Ain't Sayin' I'm a Crate Digger")? In the 1990s, kids used to get outraged over crap like this. I remember they used to protest Nike (NKE) and probably Gap (GPS), and what happened? Gap killed itself off via boneheaded merchandising ("Khakis w/ Attitude"? Way to make me look stupid, Gap). Nike is just doing, y'know, that thing it does.

Meanwhile, the '90s also witnessed Eddie Vedder railing against Ticketmaster and Bono trying to get credit for saving the world. Vedder wound up looking small-minded and impotent and influencing some of the worst music of my lifetime; I gave up trying to convince myself I liked Pearl Jam around 11th grade. Bono wound up looking ridiculous and self-aggrandizing (but hey, Time covers sell records!); I gave up trying to like U2 freshman year of college, though POP kinda ended up growing on me (!!!).

The parallels between Bono's unpaid iPod commercials (savvy PR move!) and his presumably unpaid do-gooder headlines (selfless humanitarianism? Here's something I might not repeat: I agree with Dave Marsh) point toward the latest trend in product positioning. PHILANTHROPY IS NOW MARKETING, PPL. (Tom Watson has more.) Paying for wrist bands, credit cards, water, even "boyfriend trousers" at the Gap has been rebranded as an activity you should *feel good about* for charitable reasons.

If caring about shit-- truly, sincerely valuing moral goodness and trying to act upon it-- is now just another form of submission to big business, then why shouldn't we choose more complicated moralities instead? At least in art. After all, they may have purchased our consciences, but our ids remain free.

Free to, uh, PAY for wickedly depraved movies, music, video games, and porn-- extra porn for Devin.

Me? I'd rather kill 'em all with cuteness.



(Michael Leviton, "Summer's the Worst," via the Deli)

P.S. Forgot to link to my Panda Bear review for Playboy.com (NSFW). Thanks to Gorilla vs. Bear for the reminder. Also, there's this. And this Modest Mouse review (NSFW).